As an end-of-life charity and care provider, Palliative Care Queensland (PCQ) knows how to talk about death. But PCQ is in the minority; death is still an uncomfortable subject for many people.

The charity’s new ad by creative agency Cocogun and production company Rowdy hopes to address this and encourage people to talk more openly about death, including their plans for when their time comes.

At the heart of the campaign is a stop motion film directed by Catherine Prowse called The Cassette, which follows a man at the end of his life. Rather than evading death, embodied by a charmingly stereotypical Grim Reaper figure, the man invites Death to join him as he goes out on his own terms by playing his favourite song – Here Comes Your Man by the Pixies.

“We needed to approach the topic with the utmost sensitivity and respect, while challenging people’s reticence to talk about the inevitable,” says Chiquita King, co-founder and MD of Cocogun. “Stop motion animation was a deliberate strategic and creative choice to ensure we captured a story that was relatable, heartwarming and provocative without being insensitive or too confronting.”

Prowse echoes the importance of craft in this particular project. “My approach was to heighten the emotion and add that human touch by creating a tactile, hand crafted feel across every element of puppet, prop and set design,” she says.

The care put into the film itself is emblematic of what palliative care is all about, resulting in a moving piece of work that manages to convey the conflicting emotions surrounding death.

Credits:
Agency: Cocogun
Creative Partner: Ant Melder
Senior Art Directors: Loz Maneschi, Jimmy Williams
Lead Copywriter: Lewis Clarke
Design Director: Chris Clausen
Production Company: Rowdy
Director: Catherine Prowse
Director of Photography: George Warren
Art Direction: Sarah Crombie, Yossel Simpson-Little
Puppet Makers: Adeena Grubb, Emma Niemis, Areeya Bass
Animators: Anita Bruvere, Tony Farquhar Smith, Steve Warne, Max Martin
Character Design: Rachelle Slingerland
Sound: Smith & Western
Music Supervision: Level Two Music